1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and method consistent with the present invention relate to a content service, and more particularly, to providing an adaptable content service according to the characteristics of a client terminal, and using a content service.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, as the infrastructure of the Internet expands and transmission speeds increase, the distribution of digital content through the Internet increases. In order to provide more efficient service through the Internet, various types of multimedia portal service systems are being introduced, including an internet protocol television (IPTV) service. Most current portal services limit the types of terminals which can use them, and most direct their service towards personal computers (PCs). However, as wired/wireless network infrastructures develop and various types of terminals become widespread, technologies to provide portal services to various terminals are being developed.
FIG. 1 is a conceptual drawing of a system for digital content service through the Internet.
Referring to FIG. 1, in the system for digital content service, a multimedia content service is provided to various types of terminals 121 through 127 from a system 110 for multimedia portal service through the Internet. Main service categories of the system 110 include movies, TV, online games, karaoke, music, etc., and the system 110 provides suitable multimedia content to various types of terminals having different media processing capacities and network access speeds, such as a multimedia PC 127, a set-top box (STB) 126, a built-in digital TV (DTV) 125, an MPEG audio layer-3 (MP3) player 124, a portable multimedia player (PMP) 122, and an ultra mobile PC (UMPC) 123.
According to the related art system 110, a data base (DB) stores multimedia content in a limited number of formats. Accordingly, in order to serve content to different types of terminals, a system must recognize the characteristics of a terminal, re-process the content according to the characteristics of the terminal, and provide the re-processed content. For example, when the PMP 122, which has a small screen size and low screen performance, requests high definition (HD) content provided by the system 110, the system 110 transcodes the HD content to a standard definition (SD) or quarter video graphics array (QVGA) level to be suitable to the PMP 122, and serves the transcoded HD content to the PMP 122.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a related art apparatus for providing a content service, using the system 110 for multimedia portal service based on a transcoding.
Referring to FIG. 2, the apparatus for providing a content service includes a network manager 260, which monitors network status, a user authenticator 230, a service manager 220, transcoding manager 250, and a content server 210, which includes a DB 240 storing content. The apparatus recognizes the characteristics of a terminal via a user authentication, transcodes or trans-formats the content to be suitable to a client terminal via the transcoding manager 250 according to the type of terminal, and serves the content.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a related art apparatus for using a content service, that is, a conceptual block diagram of the terminals 121 through 127 of FIG. 1, which receive a content service from the system 110 of FIG. 1 based on a transcoding.
Referring to FIG. 3, the apparatus for using the content service includes a network interface 310, for connecting to a network, a connection manager 320, for controlling services through the network, a user interface 340, for processing a user input, a multimedia engine 350, for processing multimedia content provided by the system 110, and a presentation engine 330, for displaying the result processed by the multimedia engine 350.
According to the related art system 110 for a multimedia portal system based on transcoding, the transcoding manager 250, installed in a server, re-processes content according to the characteristics of various terminals, and thus the content can be used to all types of terminal. However, as the types of terminals vary and the number of terminals simultaneously connected increases, the content re-processed by the transcoding manager 250 increases by geometric progression, and thus expenses for service also rapidly increase. In addition, the number of users that can be simultaneously connected is limited by the processing capacity of the transcoding manager 250.